Civil Service (thing)

Her Majesty's Civil Service is a unique part of the political system in the UK. Their role is to carry out the policies that the elected Ministers want enacted. The civil service is the part of the system that actually runs the country. The Ministers say they want something to be done and the civil servants find out how to do it in the best way possible. They are, in essence, glorified administrators (not meant in a negative way).

The Civil Service acts as the highest form of advisor to the cabinet. They collect information and statistics, research and collect information on an issue from pressure groups if the knowledge is not accessible from within the service. They also (using this new research) give proposals to the relevant M.P.s on what to do in a situation. A sort of multiple choice for decision making.

There have been some questions over the possibility for corruption and large amounts of bureaucracy. These remarks tend to be false though since the civil servants recruited into the ranks tend to be of impeccable character and have great loyalty to the country (and the government). However to help qualm fears over beaurocracy the Service is trying to slim down its personnel.

The permanence of civil servants is the central feature of the Civil Service. When the government changes after an election (if it changes) the Civil Service will stay the same, it will not change with the government. This means that the civil servants often acquire a sense of duty to the country because they are not working for the goals of the party in power but are working towards helping the country.

The Civil Service is both protected and protects through secrecy. All the advice that civil servants give to ministers is confidential and so they can be totally frank without fear of reprisal. The minister cannot reveal to anyone the advice that has been given to him/her. As well as this, civil servants are not allowed to disclose anything which the minister decides is secret. The minister can then leak information to the press but the Civil Service cannot. This has been the downfall of a few Civil Service such as the recent Steven Byers scandal and the not so recent Belgrano scandal. Both involved civil servants leaking secret information (though they profess that it was for honourable reasons).

The civil servants are not allowed to bring their political views into their work. They can't be partisan (be part of a party). If they happen to work with a party they don't believe in they still have to perform to the same standard that they would with their preferred party. They also cannot help their ministers with re-electioncampaigns, that is party business. They also cannot have their opinions expressed by the media.

At present, the Head of the Home Civil Service (and the Cabinet Secretary) is Sir Richard Wilson. He is answerable to Parliament only.

You may also want to watch the comedy series by the BBC called Yes Minister and Yes Prime minister. These both show the power of the Civil Service as well as the possibility of corruption.
If you are going to do any form of serious study on the UKpolitical system then these programs are a must since the general workings of the system are very accurate.